Stuffed Peppers

Happy Friday, friends! 

Glad the weekend's coming? These are my last days of freedom until summer....dear goodness. But let's not think about that!

For me, part of being in the kitchen and cooking is the experience. Some people enjoy spending lots and lots of time cooking really special meals, and that's just not my mojo - in my opinion, simple = nutritious, delicious, less time, and ultimately a more enjoyable experience. That's what food is supposed to be!

That being said, I can't eat frozen Kashi pizzas or wraps (delicious as they are) for every single lunch, and I love the opportunity of cooking my own food, so I manned up and got my sore hiney into the kitchen to cook a nice lunch. :)

(The sore butt/legs/thighs is the product of Tina's appropriately named Butt-Kicking Workout What 20 minutes will do to ya...)

This is still a really, really, easy recipe (should it even be called a recipe?) that I assembled in a jiffy. The black beans were made in the crock-pot last night, I had some rice already made, and all I had to do was chop, saute, and assemble. This meal is full of really classic combos, and also super versatile.

Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers (Serves 1)

Ingredients:

2 small baby bell peppers (or 1 regular size), cut in half

1/2 cup brown rice (if you don't have rice already made, just make some according to the instructions)

1/2 cup black beans

cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, to taste

Any veggies you prefer, chopped - I used:

onions

carrots

peppers

Any garnishes that you'd like - I used:

avocado

greek yogurt

squirt of lime juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400* F

2. Heat up a pot of boiling water, and shock your peppers (with the seeds removed). All this means is boil them 2 - 3 minutes, keeping them crisp, and then submerging them into ice water so they  cook, while they keep their color/firmness.

3. Saute up your veggies for 3 - 5 minutes in some olive or canola oil. Add to your black beans and spices in a bowl.

4. When the veggies/beans are done, scoop it into your bell peppers - it doesn't matter if it's heaping/overflowing a little bit.

(Your choice: Add shredded cheese!)

5. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes (if you've added cheese on the top, just bake until it's melted and bubbly, about the same amount of time)

6. Enjoy with any garnishes you like!

Tasty, tasty, tasty.